


Exploration

by luoup (ravenic)



Series: Team the Best Team [Platonic VLD Week 2.0] [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Worlds, Exploration, Gen, Relaxation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 09:11:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12318027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenic/pseuds/luoup
Summary: Day 4 Prompt 2: ExplorationShiro & Lance&Hunk: going somewhere new and interesting and fun





	Exploration

**Author's Note:**

> because stars know these kids need to have some fun without risk of galra or monsters.

“Come oooon, Shiro, pretty please?”

Shiro sighed.  He wasn’t getting out of this one.  Lance had that look in his eye, a cat with its prey in view, and Hunk had the puppy-dog eyes on full power.  “Fine.  But we have to come back soon and help out, and you _have got_ to be careful.”

Hunk’s smile was like the sun.  “Awesome!  Let’s go!”

“Besides,” Lance said, grabbing Shiro’s human hand and tugging his leader along as if that would make them all go faster, “we can’t get in trouble if you’re with us, Shiro.”

“Don’t tempt fate,” Shiro muttered, but he followed Team Legs willingly.  Allura waved as they left, her amused smile making Shiro feel like a child.  She had turned the boys down with a half-baked excuse about needing to read up on some documents before they made it to the next potential ally planet.  Mostly it looked like she just wanted to lie around in the yellow-gold light of this planet’s sun and doze.  Shiro didn’t blame her. 

According to castle scans, the planet they were currently on had no dominant intelligent species or highly valuable materials, and was completely unoccupied by the Galra.  The castle itself was undergoing a series of repairs and reboots and as such was grounded until further notice.  This was the perfect place to stay. 

Coran was managing the castle updates and Keith had somehow been dragged into assisting.  Last Shiro had checked, the Red Paladin actually didn’t seem displeased with the situation, just kind of confused and sort of interested in Coran’s work despite the rambling.  Pidge had threatened pain of death upon anyone who intruded into their lair – apparently the current project was very delicate – so Lance and Hunk had turned to Shiro to beg into coming with them on some exploring adventures. 

For someone who had survived what Shiro had, he was surprisingly weak when it came to teammates doing kitten eyes at him and asking pretty please to come along on an outing.  The weather was warm and sunny and although his responsible nature made him feel like he was supposed to be doing something important and productive at all times, Shiro couldn’t think of a single reason not to go.  So off they went. 

Team Voltron, as a whole, tended to have pretty awful luck.  Easy missions went bad, simple things got complicated, and overall it sometimes felt like if something could go wrong, it would. 

For once, this trip was an exception to the rule. 

They discovered a sort of bush that grew almost electric-violet-colored berries, and after a thorough examination with the “Is This Thing Yummy Or Will It Kill Humans” scanner Hunk and Pidge had built, tested them and discovered they tasted like raspberry-strawberries with a hint of pineapple, at least according to Hunk. 

“I’m not getting any pineapple,” Lance whined, reaching for another. 

Hunk slapped his hand away.  “Quit eating them, or we won’t have enough to take back.  There’s pineapple in there, I promise.  These are going to be the best space sorbet in the galaxy.”

“You can make sorbet?” Shiro asked, surprised. 

Hunk’s smile was only a tiny bit guilty.  “I’ve been experimenting.  I think I have the technique down, although it’s kind of half the texture of sorbet and half the texture of frozen yogurt.  Didn’t have anything with good flavor, though – we don’t have a ton of fruit right now and most of it is kinda weird in sorbet form.  But these are gonna be great.”

There was no arguing with that.  Despite their alarming color, the berries were some of the best things Shiro had ever eaten, and he’d been getting Hunk’s cooking for a good few months now. 

Slowly, the scrubland of berry-bushes gave way to a forest.  The leaf-flicker shade and cool moist air was familiar in the way things that were easily forgotten were familiar, although the trees were twice the size of Earth trees and were more blue-tinted than the plant life the humans were used to. 

“Race you to the top!” Lance cried without warning, making Shiro jump and Hunk nearly drop his makeshift berry bag (which was just his vest held by all four corners to carry the mass of soon-to-be-sorbet fruits).  The Blue Paladin leapt and grabbed a low branch on a nearby tree, swung up, and began climbing almost alarmingly quickly up the trunk, moving from branch to branch with fluid confidence. 

Shiro only watched for a heartbeat before following, jumping up and grabbing a different tree’s branch (much higher than the one Lance had started with – _“Showoff!”_ ), and climbing hard and fast.  The bark was smooth but had good traction, and his hands and feet never lost grip. 

“You’re both dingbats and I’m staying here!” Hunk shouted after them.  Then he made himself comfortable on the forest floor and, after checking to make sure his teammates were fully occupied and not paying any attention, snuck a few more berries.  Shiro and Lance would never notice, there would still be enough for sorbet, and they were really really good. 

Lance won the tree race, but only because he’d had a head start and Shiro encountered a section with no branches big enough to take his weight and had to monkey-leap and pull himself up by his arms alone.  They were both breathless when they reached the top, balancing on the highest branches that could hold them and looking out across the bluish forest, the fields of berry bushes, and the Castle of Lions, its gleaming white towers visible in the distance under the yellowy sky. 

“Why can’t it always be like this?” Lance asked, so quiet Shiro barely heard him. 

Maybe it wasn’t a question that had a real answer, but Shiro gave one anyway. “This is why we’re fighting.”

This – peace, laughter, the chance to take a walk through a forest without fear of enemies, looking forward to dinner surrounded by friends and dessert of the best sorbet in the galaxy.  A planet unscarred by war.  This was what they were fighting so hard to protect. 

They climbed back down after that.  Hunk wasn’t where they’d left him, but they found him sitting on the crown of a nearby hill, looking out over the same view they had seen from the trees.  There were significantly fewer berries than had been half an hour ago, but Hunk swore that there were still enough to make sorbet for everyone. 

They sat on that hill for a while, Shiro dozing in the lime-green mossy-grass stuff that covered the earth on this planet while Lance rolled down the hill over and over until he was so dizzy he couldn’t stand up.  Hunk sat beside Shiro, naming cloud shapes and sneaking their brave leader berries whenever Lance wasn’t looking. 

The small orange sun was almost setting by the time the trio headed back towards the castle.  Lance sang some obnoxious pop song that must have come out while Shiro was in space, and didn’t stop the whole way home.  Hunk complained a little (“Come on, Lance, you _know_ that one always gets stuck in my head!”) but ended up singing along while Shiro laughed at them every time they mixed up the lyrics.  The bluish shade of the forest slowly turned back into the dark waxy bushfields with their delicious berries, which the three grabbed more of as they walked – maybe they already had enough for dessert, maybe not, but extra was definitely a good thing with this particular supply. 

This was why he was in space, Shiro realized suddenly as the castleship came into view.  He was on an _alien planet_ , eating alien berries and climbing alien trees before returning home to a spaceship thousands of years old.  Shiro had signed up to go to space, to go beyond anywhere humans had ever been.  He’d done it – and past.  They were lightyears away from Earth, from anything humans had ever known.  It had been a living nightmare for a long time, and even now they were seven plus a handful of allies against the most powerful empire the universe had ever known. 

But what he’d said to Lance hadn’t been a lie.  All the fighting was worth it, to protect places like this.  To protect peace and happiness.  Maybe they would be back to battling the Galra tomorrow, but for now they were five humans and two Alteans on a quiet planet, relaxing for once. 

Shiro had wanted to go to space, had wanted to explore.  Now he was a soldier leading the most powerful weapon against the Galra, but he was still an explorer despite everything.  He had seen so many amazing things, encountered more aliens than he and Matt could have thought of, learned that the universe was so much bigger than he or anyone on Earth had ever imagined. 

Hunk was talking through his dinner plans and the highly-anticipated sorbet.  Lance stopped singing long enough to give input and call dibs on being the Official Sorbet Taste-tester.  Shiro doubted the others would let him keep the position without a fight, but he’d let that happen as it happened. 

Before Kerberos, Shiro used to watch the stars and imagine the world spinning in the darkness, living impossible lives so far away.  Now he was out in the stars himself, and days like this were more amazing than he could ever have dreamed of. 

**Author's Note:**

> made myself unexpectedly sad with this one for no reason. but it was very relaxing to write.


End file.
